Karen Sullivan-Vance is the new associate vice provost for student success.
In this role, she will provide campus-level oversight of the university’s centralized student success units, including the Student Success Center, First-Year Studies, the Educational Advancement Program, and the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships. She also will work closely with the Academic Advising Leadership Group, the vice provost for academic affairs, and the vice provost for enrollment management in promoting a campus culture that supports student success.
Sullivan-Vance has been an active member of NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising, since 2001. She has served the association as a board member, a regional chair, and chair of the Liberal Arts Commission and Global Initiatives Committee. She is the current chair of NACADA’s International Conference Advisory Board. In 2009, Sullivan-Vance received NACADA’s Dedicated Service Award for the Northwest region, and in 2010, she was recognized by the organization as an outstanding academic advising administrator and as the recipient of the Gail Rola Award for Leadership. In 2017, she received the Bobbie Flaherty Service to NACADA Award.
Sullivan-Vance previously served as director of the Academic Advising and Learning Center at Western Oregon University, where she oversaw student success initiatives, transfer student transitions, tutoring services, and advising for specific student populations. She is completing her doctorate in educational leadership at Portland State University; her dissertation project focuses on the experiences of foster youth in higher education. She serves regularly as an advising and student success consultant at universities across the country and internationally.